City traffic needs immediate planning - Land Commission

Kigali’s traffic needs immediate planning if future traffic problems are to be controlled or prevented, Dr Butera Bazimya, the Chairman of National Land Commission has said. “Traffic is an issue of concern now, because cars are increasing each month. Tomorrow we may begin facing heavy traffic jams in the city, but I understand Kigali City Council (KCC) is working on a city master plan that would possibly cater for that,” Bazimya said yesterday in an interview. “If the planning for such infrastructure becomes a 20 years’ plan, then we may reach where it will not be controllable, we need to work on it quickly,” he noted. Bruno Rangira, KCC’s Director of Communication assured The Sunday Times that the master plan will cater for the city’s traffic. He added that Kigali’s Conceptual Master Plan based on analysis of a wide range of technical aspects environmental, land use, infrastructural, cultural, and socioeconomic factors as well as economic and demographic projections, opportunities and constraints for the urban development. Rangira said that a number of roads will be constructed and others will be widened to allow easy traffic circulation in the city. “Major roads will be rehabilitated and others constructed. For example; from city centre-Sopetrade road will be expanded and we shall be having other bigger roads connecting to the Eastern Province highway,” Rangira said on his cell phone yesterday. “We shall have bypasses plus roads that will connect to Central business districts. We worked with traffic police and Ministry of Infrastructure to have a better plan. We seriously considered traffic flow.” Rangira also said that there was a study going on to include fly-overs that will be built mostly near schools to facilitate crossing roads in case of any traffic jam in the peak hours. He revealed that KCC has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Horizon Group to rehabilitate 100 kilometres of feeder roads every year. It is estimated that cars have risen from 22,000 to 60,000 cars in the city since 1994 which shows a large increase of vehicle volumes that can cause traffic problems. Recently Kigali City Conceptual Master Plan was launched as a roadmap for the expansion of the city in the next 50 years. The Plan outlines designs, strategies and actions that would guide Kigali planners and citizens in the future in more detailed district plans and implementation. The $1.7million plan anticipates creating a new city quite different from the existing one. Ends